Spider-Man Episode 28: The Station Neighborhood Youth Detective Club

The mysterious disappearance of three girls by the Iron Cross Army has caused an entire community to be afraid for their lives. Couple that with the seemingly random earthquakes in the area, and Spider-Man’s on the case.

Following the trail of red balloons, three girls confront the Boy’s Detective Club in order to gain membership. The head boy, who looks kinda like Jimmy Walker, taunts the girl and tells her she can’t join because she’s a tomboy and doesn’t have one of these sweet badges. The girl vows to find their secret cave, no matter how long it takes.

Following the boys to a shrine, they’ve hit the jackpot as a balloon flies away. However, the Iron Cross Army arrives and takes the girls away, dumping them in a jail cell. Amazoness tells them they will not interfere with her plans, and will remain there until they’re completed.

The next day, the community is astir that Yasuko and her friends did not come home last night. The police suddenly appear, and it’s obviously none other than Amazoness. The Youth Detective Club go and see the hubbub and by shooting their slingshots, reveal that they are Iron Cross, as the Ninder’s metal hands are exposed. They run, chased by two “patrolmen,” and Amazoness and the rest of her gang pull guns on the adults. She tells them silence is golden, and if they value their lives or the girls’, they won’t say a damn thing.

The next day, Hitomi and Takuya go on assignment in the neighborhood. She remarks to him this is a rather laid back place in compared to the bustling main city. They ride to a shrine, and Hitomi takes pictures of just about everything, from the magnificent architecture to the gravestones (of all things.) The Youth Detectives notice them and spend the day tailing them, all the way to a local restaurant, thinking they’re with the Iron Cross.

After Takuya orders lunch, Hitomi notices the unfriendly atmosphere of the place, as the proprietor and the customers give them the cold shoulder. She tells her boyfriend she wants to leave, but since he’s made the trouble of ordering, they can’t. The kids storm in demanding questions, but as they’re shooed away, an earthquake happens. The clocks start acting funny, and utensils cling to them as if they’re magnetic. The proprietor and his other customers play dumb, unwilling to reveal exactly what’s going on and accuses Takuya of accusing him of all things. They get the heel and are shooed out of the restaurant.

Outside, Takuya fiddles around with his bike, claiming something’s wrong and has to abandon Hitomi again. She leaves angrily, as she has to do something with Shinko anyway.

Spider-Man investigates the neighborhood, looking for any clues to related to the incident earlier. He finds a grandmother crying for one of the girls, and suddenly the tea cups start moving around rather bizarrely. He goes look around some more and finally confronts Hirano, owner of the restaurant. Hirano plays dumb, and Spider-Man has no choice but to spy on residents some more. He pieces it together and learns that the Iron Cross Army has taken the girls, and has gripped the town into cowardice over concern for them.

The boys are wondering what to do next, and as they try to head to their base, Ninders appear out of the Toro lantern statues. Luckily, Spider-Man detects something with his Spider-Sense and runs to their aid. He shooes them away and learns that workmen have kidnapped the girls, and there’s something going on underneath the shrine. He tells the kids to go tell his parents that he’s on the case, and rushes to find more clues.

After the break, Professor Monster tells Amazoness to finish installing the last of the mantle devices, which is inside one of those glass cake holders, so that Magni Catfish can split the neighborhood apart, generating a huge earthquake killing everybody in a huge radius. The neighborhood is on top of a fault line, which is why the Iron Cross chose this place. A catfish Machine BEM, you ask? In Japanese mythology, catfishes are known to be closely associated with earthquakes.

Meanwhile, the boys gather everybody in town to a bathhouse for a special announcement about the Iron Cross Army. The parents’ emotions get the better of them and they start arguing about whether or not they should help Spider-Man, or give all responsibility to him. Spidey gets tired of this and goes back to the old orchard.

He finds strands of Amazoness’s wig and figures out how to get into their secret hideout, another massive cavernous structure. I’m surprised a cave collapse didn’t happen already, since they dug so close to a fault line. Spider-Man does some sneaking around and sees that they’ve also have a huge cache of gunpowder in the cave. He disables the guard and places a bomb inside the cache, which might be pretty dangerous.

Elsewhere, Amazoness goes about her duties and laughs at the girls because they plan on starting the earthquake real soon. Nothing’s going to stop her, and her prisoners along with their parents and fellow townspeople were going to die anyway. She heads to check on Magni Catfish and install the device. The Machine Bem looks kinda like the Watermelon Monster from “Drunken Shaolin,” in and out of its armored form. Meanwhile, Spider-Man saves the girls.

The Magni Catfish is told to search for Spider-Man and it slowly does searching the caves for any sign of them. The escapees search for an exit and after finding one blocked one, try to escape by ladder. Spider-Man is the last to get out, but the Catfish’s whiskers grab his leg. The Armored form is shed when it manages to electrocute itself with its other whisker.

The girls manage to reach outside at last and are told to hide in the Youth Detective’s secret base while Spider-Man checks out the scene. Amazoness leaves the area with the Catfish sitting on the back of the truck, and the GP7 pursues them into the shipping district.

The spirits of children and parents!
Protecting the precious spirits of everyone, Spider-Man!

After shouting the episode’s battle cry, the catfish grows to immense size and is swiftly killed by Leopardon.

The episode ends with the Youth Detective Club cheering on their hero, never mind their cowardly parents.